I can totally agree with calling that tinkering - and also that it is interesting, if only (due to my diverging opinion on the merits of the approach) as a warn

I can totally agree with calling that tinkering - and also that it is interesting, if only (due to my diverging opinion on the merits of the approach) as a warning tale about how far one should go to try and fix a problem. But, just like you, I consider that not newsworthy to hackers, yet at the moment it is the #1 item on HN and it kinda makes me sad especially because of the threshold - the idea that some people do consider that hacking - here of all places - is chilling :-/ Worse - #2 item is "more people should write". I beg to differ- more people should code, so that fixing a printf and recompiling ls wouldn't be newsworthy. I'm sorry if it was interpreted as being rude- it was not the point - I just wanted to present alternative approaches to the problem, because reconsidering the problem is sometimes the right thing to do, especially when it escalate quickly in complexity.